The Emergence of Christianity

Cynthia White, "The Emergence of Christianity"


2007 | ISBN-10: 0313327998 | 248 pages | PDF | 1 MB

The ancient Romans believed that only proper polytheistic worship could maintain the pax Romana, or Roman Peace. In the first century A.D., a splinter sect of Judaism began to crack this wall, bringing upheaval, persecution, and conversion into the lives of Romans, Jews, Christians, and pagans. This exciting volume explores the emergence of Christianity in Rome during the first four centuries of the Greco-Roman empire, from the first followers of Jesus Christ, to conflicts between Christians and Jewish kings under Roman occupation, to the torture of Christian followers, Diocletian"s reforms, and Constantine"s eventual conversion to monotheism, which cemented Christianity"s status as the official religion of Rome. Supplemented by photos, primary document excerpts, biographies of key figures, a glossary, an annotated bibliography and an index, this volume is an ideal reference source for students and general readers alike.

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The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha by David A. deSilva


English | 2012 | ISBN: 0195329007 | 360 pages | PDF | 2 MB

Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree to which Jesus" message and mission were at home amidst, and shaped by, the Judaism(s) of the Second Temple Period. In The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude David deSilva introduces readers to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude. Knowledge of this literature, deSilva argues, helps to bridge the perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism when Judaism is understood only in terms of the Hebrew Bible (or ""Old Testament""), and not as a living, growing body of faith and practice.




Where our understanding of early Judaism is limited to the religion reflected in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus will appear more as an outsider speaking ""against"" Judaism and introducing more that is novel. Where our understanding of early Judaism is also informed by the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, we will see Jesus and his half-brothers speaking and interacting more fully within Judaism. By engaging critical issues in this comparative study, deSilva produces a portrait of Jesus that is fully at home in Roman Judea and Galilee, and perhaps an explanation for why these extra-biblical Jewish texts continued to be preserved in Christian circles.

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Hell Without Fires: Slavery, Christianity, and the Antebellum Spiritual Narrative

Hell Without Fires: Slavery, Christianity, and the Antebellum Spiritual Narrative (History of African-American Religions) by YOLANDA PIERCE


English | Mar. 12, 2005 | ISBN: 081302806X | 168 Pages | PDF | 590.86 KB

Hell Without Fires examines the spiritual and earthly results of conversion to Christianity for African-American antebellum writers. Using autobiographical narratives, the book shows how black writers transformed the earthly hell of slavery into a "New Jerusalem," a place they could call home.             Yolanda Pierce insists that for African Americans, accounts of spiritual conversion revealed "personal transformations with far-reaching community effects. A personal experience of an individual"s relationship with God is transformed into the possibility of liberating an entire community." The process of conversion could result in miraculous literacy, "callings" to preach, a renewed resistance to the slave condition, defiance of racist and sexist conventions, and communal uplift.             These stories by five of the earliest antebellum spiritual writers–George White, John Jea, David Smith, Solomon Bayley, and Zilpha Elaw–create a new religious language that merges Christian scripture with distinct retellings of biblical stories, with enslaved people of African descent at their center. Showing the ways their language exploits the levels of meaning of words like master, slavery, sin, and flesh, Pierce argues that the narratives address the needs of those who attempted to transform a foreign god and religion into a personal and collective system of beliefs. The earthly "hell without fires"–one of the writer"s characterizations of everyday life for those living in slavery–could become a place where an individual could be both black and Christian, and religion could offer bodily and psychological healing.             Pierce presents a complex and subtle assessment of the language of conversion in the context of slavery. Her work will be important to those interested in the topics of slave religion and spiritual autobiography and to scholars of African American and early American literature and religion.                

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